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Robert Rauschenberg: Cardboards and Related Pieces
The first comprehensive look at Rauschenberg’s Cardboard series, a previously unexplored realm of the artist’s oeuvre
Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925) began to investigate the boundaries between painting and sculpture in the 1950s, working with a variety of found objects in his Combine paintings and freestanding Combines . Later, in his Cardboard series (1971–72), he confined himself to the use of cardboard boxes, eliminating virtually all imagery, reducing the palette to a near monochrome, and commenting in subtle ways on the materialism and disposability of modern life. This book is the first to focus exclusively on Rauschenberg’s rarely seen Cardboards, along with related works from his Made in Tampa Clay, Cardbirds, Egyptian, and Venetian series. Approximately eighty-eight Cardboards and related sculptural pieces, many from the artist’s personal collection, are reproduced in the book. Full provenance and exhibition history are provided for each work, along with a complete bibliography. In addition, distinguished scholar Yve-Alain Bois offers an insightful essay that discusses the Cardboards and situates these lesser-known but critical pieces within the context of Rauschenberg’s long and creative career.
Distributed for The Menil Collection
Exhibition The Menil Collection, Houston (February 23 – May 13, 2007)
Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925) began to investigate the boundaries between painting and sculpture in the 1950s, working with a variety of found objects in his Combine paintings and freestanding Combines . Later, in his Cardboard series (1971–72), he confined himself to the use of cardboard boxes, eliminating virtually all imagery, reducing the palette to a near monochrome, and commenting in subtle ways on the materialism and disposability of modern life. This book is the first to focus exclusively on Rauschenberg’s rarely seen Cardboards, along with related works from his Made in Tampa Clay, Cardbirds, Egyptian, and Venetian series. Approximately eighty-eight Cardboards and related sculptural pieces, many from the artist’s personal collection, are reproduced in the book. Full provenance and exhibition history are provided for each work, along with a complete bibliography. In addition, distinguished scholar Yve-Alain Bois offers an insightful essay that discusses the Cardboards and situates these lesser-known but critical pieces within the context of Rauschenberg’s long and creative career.
Distributed for The Menil Collection
Exhibition The Menil Collection, Houston (February 23 – May 13, 2007)
- GenresArt
152 pages, Hardcover
First published April 28, 2007
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 9, 2014
If you think cardboard can't be beautiful, you need to spend some quality time with Robert Rauschenberg. Clearly this book fills a needed gap in both the study of Rauschenberg's career and the transition from the 1960s to 1970s in American art history, and if you've read/studied the New York School movement at all, this--at least to me--caused a whole bunch of revelations about the realization of the 2nd generation's approach to zen/art/chance/silence/universality of media. I found the essays digestible but a little scattered, but the cardboards...yeah, breathtaking. Makes me want to go tear apart some boxes and revel at the magnitude that was the 1960s/70s New York art scene.
Displaying 1 of 1 review